Family Guy Season 7 DVD review

Right, this is done in an episode by episode format, with little points picked out in a similar way to SFX Magazine’s “Spoiler zones” So it’s a review and a little info nugget for you. Enjoy.

No Meals On Wheels
Writer – Mike Henry
Rating 7/10

The One Where: The Griffins buy a restaurant, but the place does terrible business, until Joe decides to make the place his new hangout for him and his disabled friends. Peter on the other hand doesn’t want his restaurant associated with disability, so he bans them. Joe and his friends, outraged by this, take down Peter which leaves him in a wheelchair, feeling bad for what he does, peter apologises to Joe.

Verdict: It’s a reasonably good start to the DVD, although I’m a bit miffed that the contents of this disc weren’t on the 3rd disc of last years DVD (it’s part of that DVD’s production season). This episode manages to cram an awful lot into it’s 20 minute run time, it’s funny and zany as ever, but it does feel slightly rushed at some points and the ending does feel abrupt.

Highlight: The big transformer-esque robot made from Joe and his friends (I’m not making it up…) that destroys Peters restaurant. Hilarious and visually fantastic.

WTF: Peter manages to fit a New York magazine stand and an army bunker in his bedroom as a means of hiding from Lois, maybe he’s familiar with the science of Galifrey.

Best Lines: Peter: I’m in here, Lois, but wheeeerrrreeee?

Flashback fantastic: Ben Stiller with giant ears, which he uses to fly.

Boys Do Cry
Writer: Cherry Chevapravatudumrong
Rating: 9/10

The One Where: Stewie throws up at a church congregation, leading the town to believe he’s possessed by Satan, so the Griffin’s hide in Texas till the heat dies down. Where Stewie pretends to be a girl, Peter gets a horse and Chris and Meg join a youth club and drink with George W Bush. However, unsurprisingly, after discovering Stewies real gender at a beauty pageant, it alls goes wrong and the Griffins have to return home.

Verdict: The episode starts off brilliantly, Seamus, Herbert and Jake playing organs remains one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while and it keeps bettering it as the episode continues, with more digs at Texas than you can shake a stick at and a cameo from the one, the only Chuck Norris, a definite highlight.

Highlight: Jake, The upside face kid playing the organ, doesn’t sound funny when you read it, but hilarious on screen.

WTF: peters horse is a stand up comedian…and is still a horse, maybe I’m just thinking about it too much…

Best lines: Peter (after letting his horse get into bed with him and Lois): How can you deny this beautiful, majestic…the horse may have pooped in the bed.

Flashback fantastic: Canadian film festival, “I don’t mean to cause any harm and I won’t. The End”

No Chris Left Behind
Writer: Patrick Meighan
Rating 9/10

The One Where: Chris gets expelled from school and after having a difficult time finding a new one, the family appeal to Carter, Lois’ father to accept him into Morningwood Academy, a private boarding school. Chris has a great time, but it has a heavy toll on the family, who all have to take (frankly hilarious) second jobs to pay for his tuition. After hearing that, Chris re-enrols in James Woods High. Also Peter and the Chicken man have their final face-off…

Verdict: An excellent episode, the writing is brilliant and the homages to other films are just as good. The chicken fight returns and completely exceeds expectations, despite being a bit on the long side.

Highlight: The chicken fight. Brilliant pieces of action with a spot of dinner, comedy and brillaint animation.

WTF: Herbert as a Morningwood elder, who tells Carter to “get in that room” Creepy…

Flashback fantastic: Stewie having a job that involves playing a tuba behind Fat people.

Best Line: Peter: Buttscratcher?

It Takes A Village Idiot and I Married One
Writer A.Bo (Alex Borstein)
4/10

The one where: Lois runs for mayor after being disgusted by the dumping of the lake. After getting elected, she becomes corrupt and uses the tax payers money to buy things for herself, realising what she’s become, she resigns from office.
Verdict: It’s a shame that after the DVD highlight comes the DVD lowlight, although well written as ever and some funny moments, the plot is very thin and could do with more depth, also the narrative takes ages to get going (there’s too much time, although funny, at Quagmire’s summer house) and once Lois is elected, there isn’t that much of the episode left. By the end it does seem to be slightly rushed to finish, but it does seem aware of that.

Highlight: Chris campaigning door to door.

WTF: Jason X owns the department store.

Flashback fantastic: Ghetto cows in a disney movie, followed by two members of the cinema audience claiming “Disney gets us”

Best lines: Clerk: I’m sorry, I can’t do that, If I do, my boss’ll kill me. (widen to reveal Jason X with a blood soaked Machete)
Jason: Hey, not giving Mayoral discounts are you?
Clerk: No, sir.
Jason: Good, because if you do, I’ll have to kill you.

Meet The Quagmires
Writer: Mark Hentemann.
Rating 10/10

The One Where: Peter asks death to take him back to 1984, so he can have some fun before settling down with Lois, however upon doing so and returning to the future, he finds himself married to Molly Ringwald and Lois is married to Quagmire, so now it’s up to Peter and Brian to set things straight, Back To The Future style.

Verdict: An excellent idea perfectly put together, the moments of genius (such as Chris, Meg and Stewie with Quagmire chins that say giggity) and one of those rare episodes where the plot isn’t something that’s basically been done/or could be done on The Simpsons.

Highlight: Brian singing classic song “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley in a similar way to Marty McFly’s rendition Jonny B. Goode in Back To The Future.

Crossover: Roger the alien from American Dad pops up at the episodes end.

WTF: Peter had no idea Raegan was president, despite him being from the future.

Best line: Peter (crawling through a vent): Now I know how a sandwich feels. Die Hard, Brian, it hasn’t been made yet, we could write it.

Movin’ Out (Brian’s Song)
Writer – John Viener
8/10The One Where – Brian moves in with Jillian (Drew Barrymore) but he has trouble paying the rent and so Stewie moves in with them, meanwhile Chris and Meg get jobs at the store.

Verdict – A great conclusion to the Jillian saga, maybe they’ll bring her back, her stupidity was very amusing…It has some hilarious moments, such as Peters donald duck costume and a surprisingly emotional ending. The B side with Meg and Chris is also brilliant with some great stoner dialouge and a real introduction to Carl.

Highlight – Chris and Carl talking about hot actress’ It’s pretty amusing and is one of those conversations we’ve all had at some point.

WTF – Why does Jillian shout at Adam West when he’s standing right next to her?

Flashback Fantastic – Meg working for a phone sex line, only for Peter to be on the other side.

Best lines – “I can’t afford these magazines, so I’m going to have to pay with my poo” – Chris

Believe It Or Not, Joes Walking On Air
Writer – Andrew Goldberg
7/10The One Where – Joe gets a leg transplant, allowing him to walk, however after he does, he realises he can get better friends than Peter. Quagmire and Cleveland.

Verdict – It starts off well, but then begins to deteriorate as the episode progresses, although the one sided stand off at the end is fairly amusing, if not a bit long. It’s still funny, but it could have been a lot funnier. That said, Patrick Warburton does a great performance as Joe and there’s a good 4th wall gag involving Carter and Doctor Hartman.

Highlight – Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland and Joe’s dance routine.

WTF – Hasn’t this plot been done in some form before? It feels like a rehash of something else.

Flashback Fantastic – Jack Black in “The Unconventional Butler”

Best lines – What happened? Who ripped up the house, I don’t like change!” – Stewie

Stewie Kills Lois
Writer – David A Goodman
9/10The One Where – Lois and Peter go on a cruise and leave Stewie behind, so Stewie kills her. 1 year passes and despite people being over Lois’ death, a culprit may have been found…

Verdict – Excellent in almost every way. It’s easily the most ambitious episode they’ve done with some great gags, an actually surprisingly good plot device and some excellent flashbacks to compliment it, it sets things up nicely for the next episode. Especially when it turns out Lois might not be as dead as first thought…

Highlight – Lois barging into Peter’s trial with music reminiscent of THAT Star Trek: The Next Generation season finale.

Lois Kills Stewie
Writer – Steve Callaghan
10/10The One Where – Lois comes back and Stewie decides to finally take over the world and keep the family hostage. Now only woman can stop him.

Verdict – After the last episode, this completely raises the standards. It keeps that Family Guy feel, but then goes for complete over the top action and drama throughout that it could be considered a completely different show. Throghout the episode, you’ll wonder how they’ll revert back after this, thankfully, it’s explained. You won’t like it though, as it’s all a simulation.

McStroke
Writer – Wellesley Wild
7/10The One Where – Peter gets a lifetime of free burgers at McBurgertown, which gives him a stroke. After recovering, he makes it his duty to bring them down…

Verdict – It starts off brilliantly with the whole Peter moustahce scenario, which unfortunately feels slightly useless to the actual plot, which is a shame, as it would have made a great episode in itself. Asuch, it feels rushed narrative wise and you don’t feel sympathetic to Peter having a stroke, which is too small compared to the rest of the episode.

Highlight – The whole moustache section is brilliant, although a bit too short.

Padre De Famila
Writer – Kirker Butler
6/10The One Where – Peter finds out he’s a mexicn immigrant and is fired from work. However, luckily, Lois’ father has a few migrant worker positions available.

Verdict – Again, I wish the episode was based around Peter’s patriotsm at the start of the episode, it’s a lot funnier than the rest of the epsiode. IT’s a bizarre episode, because it not only muddys up Peters family history, even for a show that continually sticks a middle finger to continuity. It’s also surprisingly unmemorable, you won’t remember good chunks of it other than a couple of gags.

Highlight – Peter being a hotel maid.

WTF – Peter knows nothing about America or Lois.

Flashback Fantastic – Peter Kills the kids from Mary Poppins then its traumatized by the whole experience.

Best Lines – “In a world where Pirates are gay, but Orlando Bloom isn’t, comes Pirates Of the Carribean 4” – Peter.

Peter’s Daughter
Writer – Chris Sheridan
5/10The One Where – Peter becomes over protective of Meg after she recovers from a coma. However, she quickly starts dating her doctor and Peter isn’t too happy about it when she makes announcement about it.

Verdict – As far disc endings go, this is pretty weak. It’s far from bad, but it’s not great either. It’s pretty slow and is devoid of any real emotion, when Meg announces she’s pregnant, it’s not exactly a shock and when she gets jilted, it all turn sout to be pretty predictable. In the end, it relies on Stewie and Brian’s B story to keep up the laughs, which is reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy.